


something waiting under the water

by sassy_ninja



Series: manual for becoming the spark [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Character Study, Established Relationship, Everyone Is Gay, Feel-good, Fluff, Friendship, Fun, Gay Poe Dameron, M/M, One Big Happy Family, Poe Dameron-centric, Water, idk they're all just having fun for once
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-04
Updated: 2020-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:46:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23018002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sassy_ninja/pseuds/sassy_ninja
Summary: Poe Dameron does not swimming, nope not at all, but is he scared of water? No, definitely not, but will he sit on the beach all day rather than getting in? Yes 100%.orhow Poe's friends take a quick break to go swimming in the lake on D'Qar(can be read on its own)
Relationships: Iolo Arana & Poe Dameron & Karé Kun, Poe Dameron & Jessika Pava, Poe Dameron/Finn
Series: manual for becoming the spark [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1654303
Comments: 6
Kudos: 61





	something waiting under the water

**Author's Note:**

> hahaha its me on my shit again I put this in a series w htbts bc I originally meant for it to be in it but it slowed down the pace of the end too much so I ended up taking it out :( plus this is more sweet sweet iolo content bc apparently I have to make all of it by myself but idk I'm weirdly attached to him now so if I write fics just abt him don't @ me ok..... also ik 'race isn't real' or whatever in Star Wars (which is bullshit lmao anyways) but its not clear so my Karé is a Pacific Islander (specifically from the Solomon Islands bc of her blonde hair, google it its actually rlly interesting), iolo is se asian and jess is e asian. its important to me that u all know that these characters r not white so oop 
> 
> also poe is scared of water bc I'm scared of deep water but also love the idea of wild swimming so he's living out my dreams for me bc what r fictional characters for otherwise ;)

Poe doesn’t understand how they managed to convince him into this. Maybe because he still hasn’t figured out how to say no to Finn yet and he’d asked with those big puppy dog eyes that makes Poe start nodding his head before he can even hear what Finn’s saying. He’s so caught up in the happy hug he gets that he doesn’t notice Iolo and Jess standing behind them cackling. He should’ve known, he really should’ve known.

Normally a nice hike through the jungle would put Poe in an amazing mood, nothing like the thick woody smell of plants and the roar of hidden animals around them to make him smile, but today he’s scowling terribly. He squints at where Iolo is standing at the edge of the treeline, laughing at something with Karé and he scowls even more.

“I don’t understand why you hate water so much,” Finn remarks when they’re all trooping through the jungle on the way to the lake, “the lake’s so beautiful and clear and it’s so refreshing on a hot day.”

“Water is fine – I love water,” he grumbles as they break free of the trees and the big lake spreads out before them, “I like drinking water, I like showers, but this,” he glares at the suspiciously still surface, “I don’t like it – it’s not natural to go splashing about in it, humans aren’t made for that kriff.”

“It’s more natural than flying about in space, flyboy,” Karé grins, elbowing him in the side until he tries to fight back, swatting at her half-heartedly.

“Of course you would say that – you’re from a waterworld,” he grumbles, plopping down onto the stony beach, “you’re basically a goddamn fish.”

“Oh shut it, swampboy,” Jess jeers from where she’s already stripping off, throwing her clothes into a little pile and running towards the water, “we all know you’re just scared of swimming because you got bitten by some crawler on Yavin.”

“I am not scared of swimming,” he snaps back hotly even though it very much looks like that with everyone making their way down the shore and him sitting there, very miserably.

Okay so maybe when he was younger he’d dived into one of the sluggish rivers in the Yavin jungle and something had taken a big chunk out of his calf. He still remembers the way his blood had bloomed red and the shadow of whatever the kriff it was had disappeared into the depths. He’d promised his dad he’d never go swimming again and he rubs the scar on his leg nervously.

There are just things living in water that you can’t see until they’re too close and when you’re just floating around with your soft vulnerable human skin it’s oh so easy for them to take a quick bite. Poe’s not so stupid as to advertise himself as swampcrawler bait even when he’s been assured there aren’t any creatures bigger than his fist in this lake. Something that big can still bite a finger off and Poe would like to keep all his digits attached to his body thank you very much.

“Still the same old Poe Dameron,” Iolo grins when he makes his way out of the water, flopping onto the warm stones next to Poe and dragging a towel through his hair, “definitely not scared of water.”

“I’m not,” he whines half-heartedly, glancing out into the lake where Karé is trying to teach Jess and Finn how to do some kind of tumble turn in the water and both of them keep on just inhaling water up their nose.

“He’s cute,” Iolo says innocently, gaze flicking to where Jess is now inextricably attached to Finn’s back and screeching like a banshee, “you really like him a lot.”

“I – yeah I do, I guess,” the words tumble out with an exhale and he smiles just a little, it’s nice to admit it sometimes, that he likes Finn, likes Finn a whole lot.

“Didn’t think they’d teach them how to swim in stormtrooper school,” Iolo says after a little while, “not sending them to that many waterworlds, are they?”

“Finn told me they’d given them basic water training, but he comes here with Jess and his mechanic friend, Rose – apparently Kalonia said swimming would help with his physio,” he shrugs, wrinkling his nose when Karé somehow manages to whirl Finn over her shoulder and dunk him into the water.

“Mnn, makes sense,” he leans his wet head against Poe’s shoulder and he grimaces as the water soaks through his shirt, but doesn’t move away. He can feel Iolo grinning like the little shithead he is.

“Oi you two old men,” Jess hollers up the beach, Karé splashes her with water because she’s thirty-two as well and it’s just a little bit of a touchy subject for all three of them, “have the G-Forces finally melted your brains or are you gonna come have a swim?”

“Come on,” Iolo rolls his eyes and pulls Poe to his feet, “you know the drill, it’s either you get in now for a few minutes or Pava’s gonna come and dunk your skinny ass in.”

“My ass is very fat thank you very much,” he scowls but he pulls his shirt over his head to jeers and wolf whistles, “I hate you all.”

The water is bitterly cold when he steps in, even hours of the D’Qar sun isn’t enough to warm it up and he doesn’t squeal when it hits his belly, but the unidentified high-pitched noise he emits is enough to have Jess and Karé howling with laughter. Even Finn sniggers just a little bit, the traitor.

“I hate you all,” he repeats, glaring down into the water at the tiny silver fish that dart around his ankles, “I hate this more though.”

Jess calls him a coward with that shit eating grin on her face that he just cannot ignore. It’s physically impossible and he only hesitates for a split second before he dives at her, sending them both flailing into the water. Half an hour later when the lot of them trudge up back onto the shore they’re both still picking seaweed out of their hair.

Finn laughs suddenly, big and booming at something Karé and Iolo are bickering about and Poe feels the sappy smile come over his face before he can even realise. He’s so pretty like this with the water droplets glistening on his skin and the afternoon sun casting a warm glow. The fact that he doesn’t have a shirt on helps and Poe can’t help but give him an appreciative once over. Force, his back muscles are stunning.

“Finn put some clothes on before your boyfriend combusts,” Karé throws a shirt at his head and glares over his shoulder and where Poe is holds with his hands up, guilty. Finn laughs over his shoulder and shrugs on the shirt, Poe giving him the best innocent expression he can muster.

“A man can’t even ogle his shirtless boyfriend anymore?” he slaps his chest dramatically with a sombre expression, “what kind of galaxy are we even fighting for?”

“How ever will you cope?” Finn teases with a smile tugging at the edge of his lips as he pulls the shirt on and Poe pouts at him, “the water wasn’t too bad in the end, was it?”

He mutters something under his breath that’s mostly about how there’s so many _things_ living under the water that you can’t see until it’s too late and Finn just pulls him into a kiss until he finally shuts up. He flips off the rest of his friends from where they’re catcalling him and he smiles.

This – this is alright he thinks, even though his hair has dried crazily and is sticking up around his head like a halo. Snap and Bastian have just come back from a mission when they arrive back to base and they pile into the mess hall together, rowdy and cheery for no real reason whatsoever. He even manages to get Kaydel to laugh at one of his jokes when she stops by at the pilot’s table with some paperwork he needs to finish.

All of them, all of them together in one big messy family in the middle of a war. This is just a moment of peace that won’t last, but Poe will savour it nonetheless.

**Author's Note:**

> hehe I hope u enjoyed this small happy fic! if u did leave a kudo and a comment it would mean the world to me!


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